While they were together, from 1965 to 1995, the Grateful Dead released thirteen studio albums and nine contemporary live albums. The nine live albums were recently recorded and mostly contained previously unreleased original material. They filled the role of traditional studio albums, and were an integral part of the contemporaneous evolution of the band. (The Dead's second album, Anthem of the Sun, was an experimental amalgam of studio and live material.)

In 1991, the band started releasing retrospective live albums, a practice that has continued to the present time. There are several series of these albums. The "traditional" live releases were created by remixing multitrack recordings of concerts. A second series of live albums, from 1993 to 2005, was Dick's Picks, concert recordings selected for their musical excellence but made using stereo recordings that did not allow the different musical parts to be remixed. This was followed by a similar series from 2007 to 2011 called Road Trips, and then, starting in 2012, by Dave's Picks. Another series of albums was released only in the form of digital downloads.

The Grateful Dead's video albums include some albums that were released as both audio CDs and concert DVDs, either separately or together, and some that were released only on video, as well as two theatrical films. The band has also released several compilation albums and box sets.

Unconventionally, the Grateful Dead made the release of live albums a common occurrence throughout their career. Because many were recently recorded and included previously unreleased original material, they often filled the role of traditional studio albums. An integral part of the contemporaneous evolution of the band, such live albums are included in this section.

In the 1990s and 2000s, the Grateful Dead released numerous live concert recordings from their archives in three concurrent series. The "From the Vault" series are remixes of multi-track recordings made at the time of the concerts. The "View from the Vault" series are also multi-track remixes, but are released simultaneously as albums on CD and as concert performance videos on DVD. (The first three volumes were also released on VHS videotape.) Both of these series are included in the "Retrospective" live albums list above.

The third series of concert releases is Dick's Picks, which are based on two-track concert recordings. Because the options for remixing two-track recordings are much more limited than for multi-track recordings, the sound quality of the Dick's Picks series, while generally very good, is not quite as high as that of the other official releases of live recordings, as explained in the various "caveat emptor" notices on the CD boxes.

The Dick's Picks series, which started in 1993, was named after Grateful Dead tape vault archivist Dick Latvala. Latvala selected shows with the band's approval and oversaw the production of the albums. After Latvala's death in 1999, David Lemieux became the Dead's tape archivist and took over responsibility for producing subsequent Dick's Picks releases. Latvala and Lemieux worked with recording engineer Jeffrey Norman, who was in charge of mastering the CDs. The last set of Dick's Pick's releases were released in 2005.

Volume 15 and later were released in HDCD format. This provides enhanced sound quality when played on CD players with HDCD capability, and is fully compatible with regular CD players.

The Road Trips series of albums is the successor to Dick's Picks. The series started after the Grateful Dead signed a ten-year contract with Rhino Records to release the band's archival material. The Road Trips releases are created using two-track concert recordings, but unlike Dick's Picks they each contain material from multiple concerts of a tour. The production of the CDs is supervised by vault archivist David Lemieux, with mastering by sound engineer Jeffrey Norman. Like the later Dick's Picks, the Road Trips albums are released in HDCD format.

In the summer of 2005 the Dead began offering download versions of both their existing live releases, and a new Internet-only series, The Grateful Dead Download Series, that is available exclusively through both their own http://www.dead.net/store (which offers the albums in both 256 kbit/s mp3 files and FLAC files – a preferred audio standard for those who archive Dead and other fan-made live recordings on the Internet) and the iTunes Music Store (which offers them in their 256 kbit/s AAC format). Not surprisingly, these Internet-only albums have met with the same success as their CD-based brethren. Currently the Download Series is only available for purchase from http://nugs.net/search/grateful%20dead%20download%20series.

In 2017, the Grateful Dead began offering the 27 singles released throughout the band's history on 7-inch colored vinyl, for sale exclusively on their website, dead.net. Each 7-inch vinyl features remastered audio, and packaging designed by artists for each single and B-side.[15]